@article{5225044a1dc84e8aa3388f6bb0acaa4b,
title = "Vascular endothelial growth factor-A is a survival factor for nucleus pulposus cells in the intervertebral disc",
abstract = "The intervertebral disc (IVD) is composed of two avascular tissue types, the nucleus pulposus (NP) and the annulus fibrosus (AF). IVDs is the largest avascular tissue in the human body, however, how these tissues are maintained without a blood supply is poorly understood. Here we show that vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) is highly expressed in NP and that VEGF-A plays a role in NP survival. High VEGF-A expression in NP was detected by microarray analysis, and NP was positive for the hypoxic probe pimonidazole and hypoxia-responsive genes. VEGF-A expression in NP was promoted by hypoxic conditions in vitro. NP cells also expressed the membrane-bound VEGF receptor-1 (VEGFR-1), and the number of apoptotic cells in cultured cell model of NP increased following treatment with VEGFR-1-Fc, which traps VEGF-A in NP. These results indicate that NP is a hypoxic tissue, and that VEGF-A functions in NP survival in an autocrine/paracrine manner.",
keywords = "Avascular, Intervertebral disc, Nucleus pulposus, Vascular endothelial growth factor-A",
author = "Nobuyuki Fujita and Imai, {Jun ichi} and Toru Suzuki and Masayuki Yamada and Ken Ninomiya and Kana Miyamoto and Ryotaro Iwasaki and Hideo Morioka and Morio Matsumoto and Kazuhiro Chiba and Shinya Watanabe and Toshio Suda and Yoshiaki Toyama and Takeshi Miyamoto",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Y. Sato and A. Kumakubo for technical support. T. Miyamoto was supported by Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology, and the Takeda Science Foundation, Japan. T. Suda was supported by a grant-in-aid from Specially Promoted Research of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. N. Fujita was supported by a grant-in-aid from the 21st century COE Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, to Keio University.",
year = "2008",
month = jul,
day = "25",
doi = "10.1016/j.bbrc.2008.05.044",
language = "English",
volume = "372",
pages = "367--372",
journal = "Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications",
issn = "0006-291X",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "2",
}